Author: Warren Berkley

How To Talk To

Your Atheist Friends

Just A Few Observations

Warren E. Berkley

Do you have friends or family who are atheist? Are you able to engage them in conversation? This is from a sermon I’ve preached a couple of times about HOW TO TALK TO YOUR ATHEIST FRIENDS.

PRAY FOR WISDOM. Jas. 1:5 – “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him askGod, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” Talking to atheists may create some anxious moments even before the conversation. What words should I use? Where should I start? What should my tone be? Timing, place and other decisions come to mind. You want come across in the best possible way. Pray for wisdom.

LISTEN TO THE ATHEIST. You are going to listen to an atheist? YES. In the spirit of James 1:19 – Be quick to hear. The better you listen, the better prepared you are to know exactly what response is appropriate. If you claim all the time, do all the talking and never give the atheist a chance, you may defeat your opportunity. Let them tell their story. Listen carefully. Show that you care. Then respond, having asked for God’s wisdom.

MAKING CERTAIN THAT YOU SHOW GENUINE INTERESTS. James 2:8 says – the royal law is to love your neighbor as yourself. Hate is never a good argument. So much discourse and debate these days is driven by hate. (Have you ever heard anyone say, “you know, I was an infidel for many years. Then I met this Christian who yelled at me, told me I was a stupid and needed to change and get baptized!”) No. That doesn’t happen.

SHOW YOUR FAITH BY YOUR WORKS, not just your word. James says, “…someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your , and I will show you my faith by my works.” (Jas. 2:18). Later (3:13) – “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”

You can have a room full of atheists listening to your lectures about the existence of God all day long. You can have a session on faith in Christ. You can open the book of John and point to all the evidence. You can spend some time demonstrating the integrity of the New Testament. You can make all those arguments and make them with the highest level of clarity and eloquence. And perhaps some good will be done. But if you are not living what you preach – the value of your arguments and lectures are drastically reduced. People we talk to need to know that we care. And they need to know that we are committed to living what we preach about God and His Son.

Atheists may be as wrong as they can be about denying God’s existence – but most atheists  have good hypocrisy radar. By that I mean – if you are not living what you preach, they see it – and what you say loses credibility. “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”

NEVER HESITATE TO READ THE WORD OF GOD, OR ASK PEOPLE TO READ IT. I hope each one of us understand perfectly that God is a better speaker and writer than we will ever me. His words are more powerful than mine. God is the perfect communicator. Bring up the simple arguments of Rom. 1:19,10; Heb. 3:4 and Heb. 11:3. Let God be heard.

ALWAYS TELL THE STORY OF JESUS. Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel.James said, in Jas. 2:1, we are people who “hold thefaith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” If we hold that faith we are certainly motivated to share that faith. Will you tell the story of Jesus to an atheist? Can you read from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and let the word of God convict and turn the atheist from his unbelief?

Fight: The Battleground

Warren E. Berkley

There is opportunity to do good, but there is also temptation to do evil. This is man’s constant predicament. If you are a soldier of Christ this is your predicament too. However, you are equipped and motivated to do good and resist evil (Ephesians 6:10–20; 1 John 3:1–3). This, the soldier of Christ must do on many fronts.

In an ultimate sense, the mind is the immediate battleground. The enemy will use his cunning resources in an effort to change your mind and lead you to desert your Master. Satan will employ his subtle means to try and darken the understanding and harden the heart, so that you will give yourself over to licentiousness, to work all uncleanness and greediness (Ephesians 4:17–19). Whatever his weapon or approach, his aim is to reach and corrupt the mind—so that from it will proceed “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies,” and such like (Matthew 15:19–20). The enemy wants to infiltrate the mind to plant arguments, excuses and desires which are counter to God’s will and will give rise to overt disobedience (2 Corinthians 10:5–6).

Therefore, let us “present our bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,” which is our reasonable service. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1–2). As soldiers of Christ, we must guard the mind, for out of it are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23; Philippians 4:8; 2 John 8).

Though the mind is the immediate battleground, there is another practical perspective that warrants attention. I’ll call these …

The Battlegrounds of Our Time

Places of employment and labor. In many business offices, plants and work places, the conversation expresses a carnal, worldly approach to life. The atmosphere is often filled with sordid, adulterous affairs, the smell of intoxicants, unprincipled suggestions and invitations, vulgar language, and all manner of harassing distractions. Satan will try to use all this to weaken and destroy the soldier of Christ.

Places of commerce and trade. Satan approaches in those places where business transactions occur. He sets up the temptations to gain profit through dishonest means. He encourages the withholding of needed information in order to “close the sale.” He suggests it’s all right to oppress the poor or to take advantage of the rich or cheat on your taxes. As we march into these battlegrounds, let us remember: “Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich” (Proverbs 28:6).

Places of fun and recreation. There are still a few places where Christians can go to relax, have fun and re-create mind and body. But there is still the pressure to get all wrapped up and entangled in carnal things; the temptation to mis-arrange priorities to suit frivolous desires (2 Timothy 2:4; 1 Timothy 4:8).

The secular campus and classroom. On the Lord’s Day, the young Christian may hear that man was made in the image of God—only to hear an “educator” say, a day later, that man is the product of physical/biological forces working by blind impulse or mere whimsy! In many “intellectual, academic” circles, it is unfashionable to make clear distinctions between religious truth and error, between moral right and wrong. So, there is subtle pressure to abandon your commitment to God’s word for fear of being socially obsolete. How do you deal with this? Faith is the victory (1 John 5:4–5; Romans 10:10; Hebrews 11:1).

Where Can We Go?

Where can we go, and say, “The war isn’t here?” Is there some place of absolute isolation from temptation? No. Not even “home, sweet home” or the place where saints assemble in Christ’s name! Regardless of how clever we are, how experienced, how educated, how wise in the Scriptures—we walk from one battleground to another all the time. This is our constant predicament.

So, let us look all around and rally to the point of attack (Nehemiah 4:15–20); let us walk circumspectly (Ephesians 5:15; 1 Peter 5:8). Remember that you can bear any temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13; James 4:7).

What great and good thing was ever done without conflict and the exertion of effort? Wheat doesn’t grow without planting and plowing; money is not earned without care, attention and labor. And heaven, above all, is not to be reached without the cross and the battle. ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS!^[1]

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^[1] Berkley, W. E. (1985). Fight: The Battleground. In D. Bowman (Ed.), Christianity Magazine: August 1985, Volume 2, Number 8 (D. Bowman, Ed.) (12). Jacksonville, FL: Christianity Magazine.